The present invention is a mounting bracket that is designed to be used with a commonly available type of printed circuit board, or computer card, called an "AT style card." AT style cards are so named because they are compatible with certain industry-standard bus configurations including but not limited to AT, PC, ISA, EISA, PCI, VESA and Local Bus configurations.
Until now, AT style cards (hereafter, "AT cards") were inserted into motherboard or backplane slots either by free standing card insertion or with the aid of a containing module. The difficulty with free standing card insertion is that cards must be protected, and must therefore be inserted through or around a cumbersome protective enclosure. Such an enclosure frustrates rapid card insertion and removal. The advantage of free standing card insertion is that standard card density, i.e., 0.8 inches between adjoining card centers, is preserved.
Containing modules solve the problems of free standing card insertion, but raise a different issue. A standard containing module both protects the individual card it houses, and facilitates the easy insertion and removal of the card from a motherboard or backplane slot. But containing modules occupy more than one standard AT style motherboard or backplane slot per contained card. Thus containing modules increase the distance between adjoining card centers and limit the card density that is attainable within a particular computer housing.
A need exists for a simple device that provides protection for AT cards, ease of insertion into and removal from motherboard or backplane slots, and flexibility in adapting to various AT card lengths, while also preserving card density at the level associated with free standing card spacing (approximately 0.8 inches between card centers).